Rubric 643: Concerning A Mortality In The City Of Florence In Which Many People Died.

In the year of the Lord 1348 there was a very great pestilence in the city and district of
Florence. It was of such a fury and so tempestuous that in houses in which it took hold previously
healthy servants who took care of the ill died of the same illness. Almost non of the ill survived
past the fourth day. Neither physicians nor medicines were effective. Whether because these
illnesses were previously unknown or because physicians had not previously studied them, there
seemed to be no cure. There was such a fear that no one seemed to know what to do. When it
took hold in a house it often happened that no one remained who had not died. And it was not just
that men and women died, but even sentient animals died. Dogs, cats, chickens, oxen, donkeys
sheep showed the same symptoms and died of the same disease. And almost none, or very few,
who showed these symptoms, were cured. The symptoms were the following: a bubo in the groin,
where the thigh meets the trunk; or a small swelling under the armpit; sudden fever; spitting blood
and saliva (and no one who spit blood survived it). It was such a frightful thing that when it got into
a house, as was said, no one remained. Frightened people abandoned the house and fled to
another. Those in town fled to villages. Physicians could not be found because they had died like
the others. And those who could be found wanted vast sums in hand before they entered the
house. And when they did enter, they checked the pulse with face turned away. They inspected
the urine from a distance and with something odoriferous under their nose. Child abandoned the
father, husband the wife, wife the husband, one brother the other, one sister the other. In all the
city there was nothing to do but to carry the dead to a burial. And those who died had neither
confessor nor other sacraments. And many died with no one looking after them. And many died of
hunger because when someone took to bed sick, another in the house, terrified, said to him: "I'm
going for the doctor." Calmly walking out the door, the other left and did not return again.
Abandoned by people, without food, but accompanied by fever, they weakened. There were many
who pleaded with their relatives not to abandon them when night fell. But [the relatives] said to the
sick person, "So that during the night you did not have to awaken those who serve you and who
work hard day and night, take some sweetmeats, wine or water. They are here on the bedstead
by your head; here are some blankets." And when the sick person had fallen asleep, they left and
did not return. If it happened that he was strengthened by the food during the night he might be
alive and strong enough to get to the window. If the street was not a major one, he might stand
there a half hour before anyone came by. And if someone did pass by, and if he was strong
enough that he could be heard when he called out to them, sometimes there might be a response
and sometimes not, but there was no help. No one, or few, wished to enter a house where anyone
was sick, nor did they even want to deal with those healthy people who came out of a sick
person's house. And they said to them: "He is stupefied, do not speak to him!" saying further: "He
has it because there is a bubo in his house." They call the swelling a bubo. Many died unseen. So
they remained in their beds until they stank. And the neighbors, if there were any, having smelled
the stench, placed them in a shroud and sent them for burial. The house remained open and yet
there was no one daring enough to touch anything because it seemed that things remained
poisoned and that whoever used them picked up the illness.

At every church, or at most of them, they dug deep trenches, down to the waterline, wide
and deep, depending on how large the parish was. And those who were responsible for the dead
carried them on their backs in the night in which they died and threw them into the ditch, or else
they paid a high price to those who would do it for them. The next morning, if there were many
[bodies] in the trench, they covered them over with dirt. And then more bodies were put on top of
them, with a little more dirt over those; they put layer on layer just like one puts layers of cheese in
a lasagna.

The beccamorti [literally vultures] who provided their service, were paid such a high price
that many were enriched by it. Many died from [carrying away the dead] , some rich, some after
earning just a little, but high prices continued. Servants, or those who took care of the ill, charged
from one to three florins per day and the cost of things grew. The things that the sick ate,
sweetmeats and sugar, seemed priceless. Sugar cost from three to eight florins per pound. And
other confections cost similarly. Capons and other poultry were very expensive and eggs cost
between twelve and twenty-four pence each; and he was blessed who could find three per day
even if he searched the entire city. Finding wax was miraculous. A pound of wax would have gone
up more than a florin if there had not been a stop put [by the communal government] to the vain
ostentation that the Florentines always make [over funerals]. Thus it was ordered that no more
than two large candles could be carried[in any funeral]. Churches had no more than a single bier
which usually was not sufficient. Spice dealers and beccamorti sold biers, burial palls, and
cushions at very high prices. Dressing in expensive woolen cloth as is customary in [mourning] the
dead, that is in a long cloak, with mantle and veil that used to cost women three florins climbed in
price to thirty florins and would have climbed to 100 florins had the custom of dressing in
expensive cloth not been changed. The rich dressed in modest woolens, those not rich sewed
[clothes] in linen. Benches on which the dead were placed cost like the heavens and still the
benches were only a hundredth of those needed. Priests were not able to ring bells as they would
have liked. Concerning that [the government] issued ordinances discouraging the sounding of
bells, sale of burial benches, and limiting expenses. They could not sound bells, sell benches, nor
cry out announcements because the sick hated to hear of this and it discouraged the healthy as
well. Priests and friars went [to serve] the rich in great multitudes and they were paid such high
prices that they all got rich. And therefore [the authorities] ordered that one could not have more
than a prescribed number [of clerics] of the local parish church. And the prescribed number of
friars was six. All fruits with a nut at the center, like unripe plums and unhusked almonds, fresh
broadbeans, figs and every useless and unhealthy fruit, were forbidden entrance into the city.
Many processions, including those with relics and the painted tablet of Santa Maria Inpruneta,
went through the city crying our "Mercy" and praying and then they came to a stop in the piazza of
the Priors. There they made peace concerning important controversies, injuries and deaths. This
[pestilence] was a matter of such great discouragement and fear that men gathered together in
order to take some comfort in dining together. And each evening one of them provided dinner to
ten companions and the next evening they planned to eat with one of the others. And sometimes if
they planned to eat with a certain one he had no meal prepared because he was sick. Or if the
host had made dinner for the ten, two or three were missing. Some fled to villas, others to villages
in order to get a change of air. Where there had been no [pestilence], there they carried it; if it was
already there, they caused it to increase. None of the guilds in Florence was working. All the
shops were shut, taverns closed; only the apothecaries and the churches remained open. If you
went outside, you found almost no one. And many good and rich men were carried from home to
church on a pall by four beccamorti and one tonsured clerk who carried the cross. Each of them
wanted a florin. This mortality enriched apothecaries, doctors, poultry vendors, beccamorti, and
greengrocers who sold of poultices of mallow, nettles, mercury and other herbs necessary to draw
off the infirmity. And it was those who made these poultices who made alot of money.
Woolworkers and vendors of remnants of cloth who found themselves in possession of cloths
[after the death of the entrepreneur for whom they were working] sold it to whoever asked for it.
When the mortality ended, those who found themselves with cloth of any kind or with raw
materials for making cloth was enriched. But many found [who actually owned cloths being
processed by workers] found it to be moth-eaten, ruined or lost by the weavers. Large quantities of
raw and processed wool were lost throughout the city and countryside.

This pestilence began in March, as was said, and ended in September 1348. And people
began to return to look after their houses and possessions. And there were so many houses full of
goods without a master that it was stupefying. Then those who would inherit these goods began to
appear. And such it was that those who had nothing found themselves rich with what did not seem
to be theirs and they were unseemly because of it. Women and men began to dress
ostentatiously.

Rubric 635
How Many Of The Dead Died Because Of The Mortality Of The Year Of Christ 1348

Now it was ordered by the bishop and the Lords [of the city government]that they should
formally inquire as to how many died in Florence. When it was seen at the beginning of October
that no more persons were dying of the pestilence, they found that among males, females,
children and adults, 96,000 died between March and October.

Rubric 636
How They Passed Ordinances Concerning Many Things In Florence

In the said year, when the mortality stopped, women and men in Florence were unmindful
of [traditional modesty concerning] their dress. And ordinances were passed concerning this giving
authority to the Judge of the Grascia to enforce these ordinances. The tailors made such
boundless demands for payment that they could not be satisfied. Authority was granted [to the
judge] that he should handle all matters himself. Servants were so unhappy about the very high
prices [they paid] that it was necessary to make great efforts to restrain [the price rises]. The
workers on the land in the countryside wanted rent contracts such that you could say that all they
harvested would be theirs. And they learned to demand oxen from the landlord but at the
landlord's risk [and liability for any harm done to the animal]. And then they helped others for pay
by the job or by the day. And they also learned to deny [liability for] loans and [rental] payments.
Concerning this serious ordinances were instituted; and [hiring] laborers became much more
expensive. You could say that the farms were theirs; and they wanted the oxen, seed, loans
quickly and on good terms. It was necessary to put a brake on weddings as well because when
they gathered for the betrothal each party brought too many people in order to increase the pomp.
And thus the wedding was made up of so many trappings. How many days were necessary and
how many women took part in a woman's wedding. And they passed many other ordinances
concerning [these issues].